Overview

Synopsis

Murder With PicturesGail Patrick plays a young woman framed for murder. Luckily the newsman on the courtroom beat is ace photographer Lew Ayres. He senses Patrick is innocent (the fact that she's a knockout has something to do with this) and vows to track down the guilty party. The Least Likely Suspect spills the beans just as Ayres clicks his shutter. Paramount Pictures used to dash off two or three B mysteries like Murder with Pictures before breakfast, but they were never less than supremely entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mr. Wong in ChinatownA mysterious visitor is found murdered in Mr. Wong's study in this, the third of Monogram's low-budget thrillers, featuring Hugh Wiley's Chinese detective. A startled Wong (Boris Karloff) learns from enterprising girl reporter Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) that the murder victim is Princess Lin Hwa (Lotus Long), in San Francisco to buy airplanes for her brother's army. Both the princess' traveling companion (Bessie Loo) and a mysterious dwarf (Angelo Rossitto) become victims of a mystery killer, who uses an ancient Chinese dart as his weapon of choice. The trail leads to a steamer in the San Francisco harbor, whose captain, Jalme (William Royle), is highly suspicious. Also among the would-be murderers are a phony airplane manufacturer (Peter George Lynn) and a local banker (Huntly Gordon). Although kidnapped by Jalme, Mr. Wong manages to unmask the real culprit. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Midnight ManhuntWilliam C. Thomas' Midnight Manhunt begins with the shooting death of a master criminal who expires in a wax museum. Reporter Sue Gallagher (Ann Savage) is first on the scene, but she is soon in competition with her boyfriend, fellow reporter Pete Willis (William Gargan). The killer traps Sue in the wax museum when he returns there looking for the body. Leo Gorcey plays the caretaker of the wax museum. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Murder at MidnightA sophisticated, expensively-dressed group of people gather in a spooky old mansion to watch the first performance of a play. The highlight of the production is a realistic on-stage murder, wherein the victim is shot point-blank, right through the heart, as the clock strikes 12. The audience applauds enthusiastically as the "victim" falls dead, but the applause subsides and gives way to screams of terror when it turns out that the murder is for real! With everyone in the mansion under suspicion -- including, naturally, the butler -- the cops are baffled, and even more so when the primary suspect ends up as victim number two. "This isn't a murder case, it's an epidemic!" moans one of the detectives. Intricately plotted, and with a genuinely surprising solution, Murder at Midnight is far and away superior to your average low-budget mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi